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Thorne

“ W hat are you talking about?” I asked.

Mother’s jaw ticked. “My parents worked in the palace. I was born here on these grounds and grew up with Orion. My family came from a modest background—not of nobility, but my father served the crown well. Eventually, Orion and I became…close.” At these words, she looked away, her throat bobbing as she swallowed.

“He promised to marry me. He said it would all be ours one day.”

I remembered the conversation we’d had toward the beginning of the tour in the Mid Territory, when she told me she’d been in love once.

“It was him,” I said. “The man you loved. It was Orion Grimaldi.”

Her eyes flicking back to mine was my only answer. Isabella rocked on her heels, her brow furrowed. “I—I had no idea,” she said.

“How could you, Bella?” Mother replied. “You were the beautiful daughter of a lord, not the little girl who grew up playing in the kitchens and hiding in the gardens. You were the one the Grimaldis wanted on the throne with their son. The one they wanted bearing his offspring. I was simply not good enough.” She steeled her voice. “And Orion agreed.”

“So that’s why you killed him? Why you poisoned me?” Isabella exclaimed. “Because you were jealous ? Azura, this was decades ago!”

Mother’s eyes flashed. “How dare you diminish my pain to a mere emotion, Isabella,” she said, enunciating every syllable. “There was no one left to love me. No one left to take my retribution. So I did it myself.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “ I loved you, Mother. Marigold loved you. Was that not enough?”

She licked her lips, then bit down on her bottom lip, showing the first hint of regret.

“You don’t understand,” she said quietly.

“You don’t know what that was like. Being in love, seeing a future with someone, then having it ripped away by people with the power to change my life. All because I wasn’t enough .”

“So you took it out on the entire Grimaldi line,” I said.

Her words were like ice. “Do not underestimate the power and wrath of a scorned woman.”

“Did you kill my son?” Isabella snarled, moving quicker than I thought possible. She stood nose-to-nose with my mother, her fists balled at her sides.

Mother snapped, “Your son was an immature, apathetic, lazy child who didn’t deserve the crown he inherited.” Her jaw clenched as she swallowed. “But I didn’t want him dead, Bella. That, if anything, is the truth.”

“You just wanted him gone,” Clarissa said from the ground beside Leo.

She stood on shaking legs, her white dress covered in dirt and grunge.

“You knew you couldn’t move against him directly, but he was already one misstep away from driving his entire kingdom away from him.

His curse was running him into the ground. ”

Clarissa took another step toward my mother.

“So you didn’t want him to break the curse.

And I was your biggest obstacle. Every ‘ accident,’ every setback, it was all you .

The carriage driver, the cave-in, the—the fox.

” She paused to clear her throat, and I instinctively moved to her side.

“You say you didn’t want him dead, but you poisoned him too, didn’t you?

And the hunter on the island that almost killed me? ”

“The what ?” I growled.

“The poison was meant for you , not Galen,” my mother bit out.

I blinked. How had I been so blind? So utterly naive?

“Who are you working with?” I seethed, locking my eyes on my mother. “It’s impossible for you to have done this all on your own. I was with you most of the time— Marigold was with you.” My words turned into a snarl at the thought that I’d allowed this woman to be anywhere near my daughter.

She merely stared at me in silence.

The memory of walking in on her speaking with someone in private right before the ball popped in my mind, as well as the glimpse of a cloak Clarissa and I saw outside my hut the evening before the Hunt.

“You have spies, don’t you?” I asked. “That’s how you knew the things Clarissa said about Galen. That’s who you were speaking with when you told me you were searching for my father.” When she still didn’t answer, the air grew thick with tension. My anger swirled inside me, readying to lash out.

“Answer me!” I thundered, chest heaving.

“What do you want me to say, Thorne?” she hissed. “You’re already going to see me behind bars after all of this. Your own mother . What more do you want from me?”

“I want the truth . I want you to look me in the eye and tell me you tried to kill the woman I love. That you’re the one who caused her such pain. That you’ve been lying to me for months .”

Clarissa sucked in a breath, and her fingers grazed the side of my hand.

“I told you once that you were a fool,” my mother whispered. “Perhaps we both were. But I was doing what I thought was best for our kingdom. ”

I shook my head in disgust. “No, you weren’t. You were doing what you wanted. What best served you .”

“How did you do it all?” Clarissa asked. “Who was helping you?”

“Someone who owes me a great debt,” Mother said. “And who’s just as willing to do what must be done to get what she wants.”

Her eyes flitted over my shoulder.

I turned to see a flash of red hair and sunlight glaring off black-rimmed glasses. The maid appeared from the side door of the palace with bandages and ointment in hand.

Clarissa inhaled sharply. “Devora?”

Devora’s keen gaze found my mother’s. Her face hardened. She dropped the supplies and spun on her heel.

“Not so fast, darling,” a low drawl echoed from behind her right as Nox wrapped his hand around Devora’s wrist.

She gasped like something had burned her, then snapped her neck up at him. A second later, a dark mist seeped from her feet. It almost looked as if it were coming from her.

Nox glared down at her, his features shifting from suspicious to downright murderous as he let out a curse and yanked her closer to him.

“ Who are you ?” he shouted, a hint of his dragon form leaking through. His navy eyes held a storm while the veins at his forehead and neck pulsed.

“Nox!” Clarissa said in warning, pointing to the shadows now billowing between Nox and Devora. “What are you doing?”

“That’s not me,” he said. In the blink of an eye, Nox twisted Devora’s arm so her back was pressed into his chest, his arm held tight across her throat.

His voice came out a growl as he said, “It’s her. She’s Veridian .”